


We'll Be Yours

by ruggedindividual



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, Other, Polyamorous Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 07:11:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3801430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruggedindividual/pseuds/ruggedindividual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Malik gets new neighbors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We'll Be Yours

**Author's Note:**

> Is it unforgivably self-indulgent to write your ot3 living in the same town and even the neighborhood you grew up in? Probably yes. I have done it anyway.
> 
> Man it has been a long time since I posted a piece of writing online for public consumption. I don't know how to write these characters?? But I need this ot3, and there's not enough of it out there. I'm sure there are other people in the same boat.

The fact was, if you weren't a college student or a doctor, Malik's city was a boring place. The only reason anyone ever came was for the university or for the near-half of the city dominated by medical facilities. If you liked having plenty of options for partying and plenty of options for being healed afterwards, while also being completely surrounded by farmland, this was the place to be. Otherwise, it didn't have much to offer.

Which was to say that when Malik discovered that his new neighbors had moved there from a much bigger city in the north, and were not involved in the school or the hospital, it was a little bit of a surprise.

The U-Haul truck was parked next to the apartment complex when Malik got home one fateful evening. There were only two levels, with four apartments on each level, and the only one that was vacant was the one next to Malik's. So, he took an immediate personal interest in this development. The truck was in his usual parking spot, but he was willing to forgive that for now.

He parked, got out of his car, and went to investigate. The truck was open and had been partially unloaded, but there was no one around it. He heard footsteps on the wooden stairs, though, and soon appeared a woman. She was pale, her black hair tired in a messy bun, and she wore a rumpled grey t-shirt and shorts. She got as far as the base of the stairs and a few steps down the cement path leading from the complex to the street before turning around.

"What?" she called.

A man appeared on the second floor and leaned over the railing. "It doesn't look like it's going to fit through the doorway," he said.

"You said it would fit!" the woman said loudly.

"I may have been wrong," the man called.

Malik heard the woman sigh loudly as he approached. She turned, and straightened when she saw him. "Hello," she said.

"Hi," Malik nodded in greeting. "2A, right?"

"Yes," she said, looking surprised. "If we can get the couch through the door, anyway."

Malik smiled. "I'm in 2B," he said, and he stuck his hand out. "Welcome to the building."

She took it, and shook firmly. "Thank you," she said warmly. "I'm Maria. My husband up there is Altair."

"Malik," he introduced. "Nice to meet you." He glanced back at their truck, which was still mostly packed. And it was already 5:30 pm. "Do you have anyone helping you?"

"Oh, no," Maria said. "We're actually new to the area. We just came down from Baltimore."

"That's a long way out," Malik commented. It was a little bit of a surprise that anyone would want to come down here from a big city. But then, who knew where these two were really from. Judging by Maria's accent, she, at least, wasn't even from this country.

"Yes, well. If we'd gotten a little bit of an earlier start we'd be in a better situation right now," Maria said, rolling her eyes. "I think we're just going to do what we can today and get a hotel for the night."

"Do you want help?" Malik asked

"Oh, that's alright," Maria said. He felt her very carefully not look at where his left arm used to be. "We don't want to be a bother."

"I can call some people. It wouldn't be an inconvenience," he assured her. "My little brother and his friends need things to keep them out of trouble."

Slowly, Maria grinned. "Well, if you're sure it wouldn't be any trouble," she started.

"None at all," Malik said.

They ascended the stairs together, Malik to change and call Kadar, and Maria to help her husband with the couch. It looked good and stuck. Altair looked up as they approached, and Malik nodded his greeting as he unlocked his door and disappeared inside. As the screen door shut behind him, he could hear the beginnings of quiet bickering about the couch.

Kadar picked up the phone after three rings. "What?"

"Bring your friends to my house. Some people are moving in from out of town and they need help," Malik said.

"I'm doing homework," Kadar said.

"You're playing MarioKart," Malik replied.

Kadar heaved an overly dramatic sigh. "Hang on," he said. He put the phone down, but Malik could still hear him propose the idea to the group of teenage boys he was with. He was back after a few seconds. "Why should we be doing this again?"

"Because your mother raised you to be a nice person," he said. "And I'll buy you doughnuts."

More muffled conferring. "Doughnuts and pizza?" Kadar proposed.

"One pizza," Malik said.

Kadar sighed again. "Come on, Malik," he whined. "We're growing boys."

"Growing boys need to eat vegetables," Malik said. "Hurry up."

"Fine," Kadar said. He hung up without saying goodbye. Malik deposited the phone on the dining room table and went to change into a t-shirt and sweatpants.

When he got back outside, the couch was half-way through the doorway but wasn't going anywhere fast. Maria had her hands on the outside end, but wasn't actively holding it up. Instead she was laughing.

"What the fuck," Altair was saying. "It was moving just a second ago. What happened?" Maria shook her head and shrugged helplessly.

"Need help?" Malik asked.

"Please," Maria grinned.

Together the three of them did what maneuvering of the couch that they could, at times just pushing or pulling until it moved. It wasn't the greatest strategy for getting a couch through a doorway, honestly. But miraculously, they managed. They set it down right in front of the doorway and straightened up to catch their breath.

"We can't ever move again," Maria said. "Or if we do, we're not bringing this with us."

"Chainsaws are always an option," Altair pointed out. He wedged himself through the very small gap between the couch and the doorway so that he was out on the porch as well, and stuck his hand out to Malik. "Thanks for the help. Malik? Right?"

Malik shook his hand. "Yeah. It's no problem," he said.

"We probably wouldn't have had random strangers offer to call for backup to help us move in Baltimore," Altair said.

Malik shrugged. "You're living in the south now," he said.

Altair grinned. "You mean there's good things about this place?"

Malik snorted as Maria elbowed her husband in the ribs. "Believe it or not," he said. Just then he heard the sound of tires on gravel, and turned to see a pickup truck pull into the parking area. Riding in the back of it were Kadar and two other guys, with two more actually inside the truck. They got out and walked into the yard.

"You didn't say they were on the second floor!" Kadar shouted up to him.

"Shut up," Malik replied loudly. He turned to Altair and Maria. "If you don't give them some directions they'll probably start throwing boxes at each other haphazardly." The couple smiled at him.

The work was tiring, but it didn't last more than a couple of hours. It was lucky that doughnuts and pizza were enough of a motivator to high school boys to do physical labor. Maria mostly stayed inside the apartment, directing people on where to put things, because when left to their own devices Kadar and his friends tried to build a castle in the living room out of the boxes they carried in.

Altair had saved a few boxes for the end, ones that only had clothes inside and nothing fragile. He, Kadar, and Kadar's friends were taking turns trying to throw the boxes up to the second floor, where someone would lean over and catch the box. More than a couple of times, the designator catcher failed and the box came back down on someone's head. Malik and Maria watched these proceeds from the side, far enough away to be well out of the potential line of fire.

"Thank you so much," Maria said. "This would have taken so much longer with just the two of us."

Malik gave a half-shrug, and watched as Altair let the teenagers have the last few boxes and retreated to join the two of them. "Moving is hard," he said. "I'm glad we could help."

"That was really cool, though," Altair said. "If there's anything we can do for you let us know."

"Thanks," Malik started.

"Malik," Kadar shouted. "Doughnuts."

Malik sighed and rolled his eyes. "If I don't feed them they'll revolt," he said. "Good luck unpacking."

"Thank you," Maria said again.

"See you later?" Altair asked.

"I am right next door," Malik said.

Kadar was making impatient noises, so he turned and walked towards his car. If he heard Maria whisper "I saw him first," or Altair's hushed laugh, he made no sign of acknowledgement.

 

It didn't take long for Malik to realize that his new neighbors were a little bit weird.

Every weekday morning, Malik's routine involved waking up, starting a pot of coffee, then sitting and drinking the coffee while staring out the dining room window until he was awake enough to do anything else. Today he saw movement.

The building had a nice open space behind it with shady trees, and some that were even good for climbing. Often during the summer Malik looked outside and saw neighborhood kids running to and fro. But it was 6 in the morning, and it was not a child that was climbing one of the easier trees. Malik peered down to get a better look.

The guy climbed one tree, tested a few of the branches to see if they would hold his weight, then jumped down again. He repeated this with a few different trees. He hung off of one branch, swinging back and forth, then launched himself forward a few feet. On another, he swung and then used his backwards momentum to pull himself up until the branch was at his waist. He dropped back down. Then he picked one of the bigger trees, ran towards it, and did a backflip off of it. His landing wasn't the greatest, but he didn't fall over. And Malik wasn't judging, because he definitely couldn't do anything like that.

He hadn't meant to stare, but it wasn't every day people do backflips in your back yard. The guy turned toward the building and noticed Malik. He lifted his arm in greeting. Malik reached over and opened the window.

"Hey," the guy called, and Malik recognized Altair's voice. Of course.

"Hey," Malik replied. No point in pretending he hadn't been watcing at that point. "What the hell was that?"

Altair walked closer to the building so that they wouldn't have to shout as much. "Parkour," he said with a grin. "Sort of, anyway. You've seen those videos on the internet, right?"

"Yeah," Malik said, leaning on his window sill. "So you jump off of buildings and stuff?"

"Well, not often. It's kinda dangerous," Altair said. "I can climb, though." And he felt the need to demonstrate this, apparently, because he began to climb. There weren't many footholds, the building being made of brick, but he made due using a pipe that was screwed to the wall and his aparently ludicrous arm muscles. Soon he was hanging off of Malik's windowsill like it was nothing, his legs pulled up to his chest and his feet propping him up on the brick.

"You can climb," Malik agreed. He stood up a little bit straighter to give Altair more room. He could see him better now, and could see that he had already sweat through his t-shirt doing something or other. He had apparently been awake for a while. "Do you want to come in, or..."

"That's okay," Altair said. He seemed to be completely content hanging off the windowsill. "Oh, but I do have a question. Do you think you could help me figure out the washing machines? Like. I tried. I really did. But they're weird."

Malik snorted. "I can do that," he said. "Meet me down there?"

"Great," Altair grinned. He let go with one of his hands and turned so that he was facing outward. Then he jumped from the wall, and landed with a roll on the ground. He was back up on his feet again in seconds. Malik shook his head and went to grab a mug of coffee before he went downstairs.

The laundry room couldn't quite be considered a basement, but it was down a few steps from the ground level of the front of the house. It opened up into the back yard, which was sloped downward anyway. There were four sets of washing machines and dryers crammed into the little room. Truth be told, they probably needed another set, because a couple of the apartments had big families living in them, but this early in the morning, nobody was using them. Altair was sitting on one of the dryers when Malik arrived.

"They're kind of old and temperametal," Malik said. "The landlord doesn't seem willing to get rid of them yet."

"Hasn't he sent someone to fix them or something?" Altair asked.

"Many times," Malik said. "We've mostly learned to deal with it unless something is majorly wrong." He explained to Altair how all of the steps needed to be done in a certain order, although the washing machine on the end had a different order than the others. The dryers were simpler, but sometimes loads had to go through them twice to get really dry. Altair repeated the steps back to him until he was sure he had them memorized.

"Thanks," Altair grinned. "I ended up just going to a laundromat yesterday."

"Honestly, that might be a better use of your time and money," Malik said. "These machines are not kind to busy people."

"Good thing I'm not that busy, then," Altair said. "So, what do you do?"

Malik took a sip of his coffee and leaned against a washing machine. "I work at Wells Fargo," he said.

"You're a banker?" Altair asked.

"Acccording to a broad definition," Malik said. "I work with loans. Specifically, trying to convince people to pay their loans."

"Sounds fun," Altair said.

"It's really boring," Malik said. Altair nodded sympathetically. "What about you?"

"Well," Altair hesitated, as if he was seriously considering how to answer that question. "I don't really know what I do, right now."

"You don't know," Malik repeated.

Altair smiled. "I was working this desk job for a big company, but I hated it. And Maria loves what she does. She works in marketing. She applied for a better job down here and ended up getting it, so we decided that she would do that and I'd look for something I liked."

Malik could definitely sympathize with wanting to quit and find something completely different. "Do you have anything in mind?"

"I'm thinking about seeing if Parks and Recreation have any openings," he said. "I don't really know yet, though."

"Well, good luck," Malik said honestly.

"Thanks," Altair grinned.

 

The mailboxes were out by the street, and Malik didn't realize that there had been a mail-related error until he had already climbed the stairs. But he could see Maria's car pull in just then, so he decided to wait. The couple had been there about two weeks now, and Malik had seen them a few times since helping Altair with the laundry room, but usually when he saw one or both of them either he or they were busy, so their interactions had been minimal. Now it was Friday, and Malik didn't have anything to do, so he loitered on the porch, leaning against the railing, and looked at his mail.

It hadn't beena bill that he received by mistake. It seemed to be a personal letter, from a Robert de Sable to Maria Thorpe. The address had simply been written wrong, so the error hadn't been made by the mail carrier. Nothing about the envelope gave away anything about its contents. Other than that, Malik had only received bills and junk mail.

Maria made it to the top of the stairs and smiled when she saw him. "Hello, Malik," she said.

"Hey," he returned, and held out the letter to her. "Someone got your address wrong."

She took the envelope and looked at it. Something on it made her eyes narrow, and before Malik knew what happened she had ripped it in half, and was moving to rip it in forths. Malik's eyebrows shot up, but he said nothing.

"Ex-boyfriend," she finally said. "He wasn't happy about Altair and I moving here. He started acting creepy, so I dumped him."

Malik opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and closed it. He tried again. "What?" he asked dumbly.

Maria smiled at him. "Altair and I are polyamorous," she explained.

"Which means..." Malik prompted.

"Google it," Maria said. "It's really cool."

Malik did google it. And watched youtube videos about it. Whether it was really cool depended on who you asked, he supposed, but he couldn't deny that it was interesting. The concept of being in a relationship with more than one person at one time was fairly foreign to him, but proponents seemed happy with their choices. He wasn't going to judge.

 

Malik saw both of them again on Sunday. Kadar had come over that morning looking for help with math homework, and after finishing off all of Malik's junk food for lunch he was demanding to be taken home. It was only a 15 minute walk, but Malik agreed to take him anyway, if only because at some point in the future Malik knew he would need a favor. This way Kadar wouldn't be able to use this incident as an excuse to say no.

Maria was in the parking area sitting on the hood of her car. She looked ready to go somewhere, but Altair had apparently gotten distracted teaching some of the neighborhood kids how to do cartwheels in the front yard. Maybe parks and recreation would be a good workplace for him.

"Hey, Malik," Maria said as they approached. "Hi, Kadar."

Kadar blushed slightly, because a pretty older woman had remembered his name. "Hi," he said.

"You guys settled in yet?" Malik asked.

"We're getting there," Maria said. "There's still a few boxes to unpack, but I think we've been doing pretty well."

"Honestly, I still have boxes to unpack, and I've been here three years," Malik said.

Maria laughed. "That makes me feel a little bit better, then," she said. Just then Altair did a backflip, which earned him many gasps and excited squeals. Kadar gaped.

"That was awesome," he whispered.

Maria snorted. "Don't say that to him. He'll get a big head," she said. Altair chose that time to leave the kids to their uncoordinated tumbling and joined Maria on the hood of the car.

"Hey," he said. "I have a question. What is there to do here? In general. We've been to restaurants and stuff, but other than that."

"Do you like college football?" Malik asked. They both stared at him blankly, and Kadar snickered. "Not much, then."

"Seriously?" Maria asked.

"There's frat parties and sports bars. There are free classical music concerts pretty often at the university. Every month the art galleries downtown have some sort of party thing," Malik said. He tried to think of what else happened in town, but nothing was coming to mind. "There's strawberry picking...?"

"No one every comes here except to go to school or party. Usually both," Kadar said. "But if you're into churches, you could go to a new church every week and not run out for months."

"That's just what I want," Altair said sarcastically. Kadar just shrugged.

"What do you like to do, Malik?" Maria asked.

"Uh..." He grasped around for something and was coming up mostly blank. "I like to read. And eat."

Maria grinned. "What's your favorite restaurant?" she asked.

"There's a good Indian place downtown," Malik said.

"We'll have to find that, then," Maria said.

Kadar chose then to poke Malik in the side. "I'm gonna miss my show if we don't go," he said.

"You could have walked," Malik pointed out, but he said goodbye and they got in his car.

"So what's with them?" Kadar asked when they were on the road.

"What do you mean?" Malik asked.

"I don't know. They just seem really smiley," Kadar said. "It's not a bad thing. Just kinda weird."

Malik shrugged. "I don't have an explanation for you. Maybe people from Baltimore are just happy," he said. "Altair does parkour, apparently."

That got Kadar's attention immediately. "Seriously? Is he good?" he asked. Malik spent the rest of the car ride telling Kadar about Altair climbing up to his window.

 

When Malik was a kid, the main branch of the library was a cube-like building with two floors. Now, the original two floors were entirely taken up by the nonfiction section. Fiction was on right part of the extension and the children's wing on the left. They didn't have enough parking, but it was a good library other than that.

Malik had just come in to grab a copy of Hamlet, which Kadar was reading in his English class. He'd promised to read it and discuss it with him in an attempt to get him to actually do his homework. He happened to look over and notice Maria browsing the couple of shelves saved for YA books. She looked up and noticed him at the same moment, and waved to him.

"Malik! Fancy meeting you here," she said when he got closer.

"Hey," Malik smiled. "What are you looking for?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," she said. "This is the first time I've been to this library, and I wanted to see what they had. I lost Altair in the stacks half an hour ago."

"That's unfortunate," Malik said. "I've heard them do calls for lost children before, if that helps."

Maria laughed. "Yes, I might have to try that," she said. She looked at the book he was holding. "Do you like Shakespeare?"

"Honestly? Not really," Malik said. "Kadar is reading Hamlet for school and he wants me to read it too so that he can complain."

"That's very nice of you," Maria smiled. "I wish I'd had a sibling I could complain to about English readings. That was my worst class. I hated reading in school."

"Well, you're in a library now, so it could't have hurt you that much," Malik said.

"I suppose," Maria said. "Although I'm not sure my high school English teachers would be thrilled to know most of my reading comes from the young adult section."

"Just because English teachers are obsessed with Shakespeare doesn't mean everyone has to be," Malik commented.

Maria laughed. "Oh, there's my husband," she said, and Malik turned to see Altair making a beeline for them, a grin on his face and a book clutched to his chest.

"Hey, Malik," he said when he arrived. Then, "I found the greatest book ever."

"Did you?" Maria asked. Altair nodded, then after a dramatic pause, he flipped the book over so that they could read the title.

"'Love and Sex with Robots,'" Maria read aloud. Malik snorted. "Should this worry me? Are you going to leave me for a robot?"

"Of course not," Altair said. "The robot would just be a secondary relationship."

"Of course," Maria chuckled. "Well, if you're done, I'm hungry, so let's check out."

"I haven't even looked on the second floor yet," Altair frowned.

Maria sighed. "Come back tomorrow, then," she said. "We've been here long enough."

The three of them went to the checkout counter together.

 

It was early morning one Saturday when Malik answered a knock at his door. He was wearing boxers and a t-shirt and wasn't awake enough to care. Altair stood on the other side of his screen door, wearing sweatpants and running shoes and looking frustratingly awake.

"Morning," Altair grinned. "Want to go for a walk?"

Malik stared at him for a moment. "A walk?" he repeated.

"Yeah," Altair confirmed. "On the track that goes by the river. Come on."

Malik continued to stare, uncomprehending. "It's seven in the morning," he said.

"I'm aware. That's just what Maria said, in fact," Altair said. "I mean you don't have to go. But we're going. And we thought it'd be fun to invite you, too."

Malik took another moment to process this. "Can I make coffee first?" he asked.

Altair grinned. "Yes," he said.

Malik made coffee. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and dressed himself. He dumped all he could of the coffee into a thermos, and the rest he drank right there. When he made it out of his apartment, Altair and Maria were standing outside waiting for him. Maria looked similarly sleepy, with bags under her eyes and a thermos of her own in hand. Whereas Altair looked ready to run a marathon.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"There are worse things I could be doing right now," he yawned.

To get to the track, they had to walk a few blocks through the neighborhood. For being within walking distance of campus, it was incredibly peaceful. There was a large catholic church and school on the next street, and beyond that a cemetery, and just after that was the greenway. To the right of the road it led through open areas of grass, heavily wooded areas, behind a school and eventually ended at a park. To the left was mostly trees until it came to the river, which it followed right to the city commons. That was the direction they headed.

"I've been jogging this thing basically every day," Altair said as they turned onto the track. "It's really cool when there's nobody around."

"That's because nobody wants to get up at four in the morning to run," Maria said.

"You go jogging at four AM?" Malik asked, dumbfounded. He didn't think he'd be able to put one foot in front of the other that early.

"Yeah," Altair said. "It's a great time to run."

"It's dark," Malik said. Altair just shrugged.

"I married a morning person," Maria said sorrowfully.

"Why?" Malik asked. Maria laughed.

"I didn't know until it was too late," she shrugged.

They talked easily as they walked. Malik told them about some of the more ridiculous situations he'd encountered while trying to convince people to pay their loans. Altair and Maria asked him about his family, so he told them about how his mother had come here to go to school and just stayed, how he had left for school but had come back afterwards, and how Kadar was determined to leave and never look back. Altair talked about the job he'd managed to get helping to teach a children's gymnastics class even though he wasn't a gymnast, and Maria told them about how bad the YA novel she was currently reading was. All three of them shared the stories of how they or their parents had ended up in the country. It seemed like no time at all before Malik realized they were closer to downtown and the city commons than they were to their houses.

"Did you have anything to eat before we left, Malik?" asked Maria.

"No," Malik said, and with the coffee he hadn't realized he was hungry until then.

"We should get breakfast," Maria said. "Or brunch. There are cafes down this way, aren't there?"

They had to walk through three blocks of government buildings, but they found their way to a place that served food and ate. Afterwards, Altair paid for the whole meal, and only then did it occur to Malik to wonder if this had been a date.

 

The sun was setting, and Malik was outside. Kadar had been coming over in the evenings for three days straight so that he could play a certain video game without their mother knowing. It was blatantly dishonest, and Malik shouldn't have been allowing it, especially since Kadar insisted on having the TV so loud. But he was anyway. He stood on the porch and leaned against the railing for some quiet, and to contemplate whether to order pizza or Chinese.

The door to his right opened, and Malik heard Maria's "Hurry up, we're going to be late," before he saw her step outside.

She looked amazing. He may have stared for longer than a moment. He'd only ever seen her in casual or work clothes, but tonight she wore a black sleeveless dress that cut off at her knees with black flats, and her hair was braided and pulled into a bun. She smiled at him.

"Hey," she said.

He had definitely been looking at her longer than he should have. "Hi," he returned.

"Work party," she explained with a knowing smile. "It's sort of a pain, but I guess it's nice to get dressed up every once in a while."

Before Malik could make his mouth work properly to give an actual reply to that, Altair stepped out of the apartment and locked the door behind him. He had on black dress pants, dress shoes, and a dark red button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. It even looked like his hair had been styled.

"Oh, hey," he said when he saw Malik.

"Hey," Malik said, absolutely failing in the not-staring-at-your-attractive-neighbors department.

"He actually let me fix his hair, doesn't he look nice?" Maria asked, touching the top of Altair's head gently. Altair chuckled and ducked away from her.

"You did a good job," Malik said, which was the first full sentence he'd managed to speak since Maria had made her appearance.

"Thank you," she grinned. "We'll see you later, Malik?"

"Yeah," Malik said. "Have fun."

They disappeared down the stairs and reappeared in the front yard. Malik watched them walk to their car, and then watched the car as it drove away.

 

A few days later, Malik was woken up at 2 AM by bright flashing lights and the sound of a siren. He pulled on a pair of dirty jeans and a t-shirt and went out to the front porch to investigate further. There was a fire engine parked in a way that blocked the entire street, and beyond that an ambulance. The fire engine was partially in front of the apartment building, but it looked like they were focused on the house next door. A couple of old women lived there, alone, to his knowledge. Malik hoped they were okay.

He wasn't the only one who had come outside to see what the commotion was about. He saw the middle aged woman on the other end of the building out in a robe, cigarette in hand, and a couple of guys from down the street were walking toward the vehicles. Because of the U shape the building was in, it was hard to see anything, but Malik made no move to go downstairs.

The door opened next to him, and Altair stumbled out in sweatpants and a tank top. "Hey," he said, and Malik was delighted to note that he actually sounded a little bit sleepy just then. "You can kinda see better out one of our windows, but there's still trees in the way. Who lives over there?"

"A couple of old ladies," Malik said. "I've only met them once. Sometimes when the weather is nice they'll sit on their porch and play recorder duets."

"That's adorable," Altair said. "I hope they're okay."

"Me too," Malik said. They stood by the railing in silence, watching the fire engine's lights illuminate the neighborhood, waiting for something to happen. The guys that had come from down the street went back home, and the older woman went back inside. Eventually the ambulance and fire engine drove away. They still had their lights on, but didn't use sirens.

"Well, that was exciting," Altair yawned. "Wanna do something?"

"Like what?" Malik asked.

"Do you have to work tomorrow?" Altair asked.

"No," Malik said. It was a Friday.

"Let's go to Waffle House," Altair said.

Malik stared at him for a moment, but if this was anything like the last outing Altair had suggested, questioning it would get him nowhere. He sighed and shrugged helplessly. "Okay," he said.

"Great," Altair grinned. "Let me just get Maria up."

Malik went back inside to grab shoes, keys and his wallet, and waited outside for Altair to reappear with Maria in tow. She was obviously still half asleep. She had on an over-sized jacket, pajama pants with a penguins on them and flip flops. Altair was holding her hand and physically pulling her behind him.

"Morning," she yawned.

They took Maria's car. Altair drove, and Maria sat in the passenger's seat with her head against the window. Malik heard her snore once during the trip and grinned to himself, while Altair reached over and flicked her in the thigh.

Waffle House was completely empty except for one college student in the corner who was huddled over a textbook and looked like he very much needed some sleep. They sat in a booth and stared at the menus like they were in a foreign language for a minute.

"I'm not even hungry," Maria admitted.

"Me either," Malik agreed, then laughed. "Why did we decide to come to Waffle House?"

Altair grinned. "Have you ever been to Waffle House at three in the morning before?" he asked.

"I can't say that I have," Malik said.

"There you go," Altair said, as if this explained everything. "Let's just get a bunch of hash browns and share"

They could agree to that, so Altair got up to order. While waiting for the woman behind the counter to make their food, he made a trip to the jukebox, and a few moments later 'Come on Eileen' was playing over the speakers.

Maria giggled and set her forehead down on the table for a few moments. She sighed before coming back up, but there was still a smile on her face. "At our wedding reception, someone convinced the DJ to play this song four different times," she said. "I still don't know who it was. Neither of us were even particularly fond of the song at the time. But now I can't hear it without smiling."

"Very romantic," Malik said.

"It happens," Maria laughed.

Altair eventually returned with two large plates of hash browns and two extra paper plates, along with three glasses of orange juice. He dumped one of the plates of hash browns onto the other one, and they used the three empty plates to divvy up the hash browns as they saw fit. They ate in companionable silence for the most part. Three in the morning was a time to be quiet, whether you were at Waffle House or not. Still, it was fun. Malik couldn't remember the last time he'd done something as ridiculous as this. Probably not since college. It was nice.

On the drive back, Maria sat in the back with Malik. No explanation was given. Her knee touched his for most of the trip, and Altair looked at them through the rearview mirror constantly, a smile in his eyes. Malik didn't mention it.

 

Altair knocked on Malik's door after work on a Monday with an apologetic expression already on his face.

"I know this is going to sound ridiculous," he said. "But can I borrow a cup of sugar?"

"Sugar," Malik repeated.

"Yes," Altair said. "Maria's coming back from a business trip today and I wanted to make her a cake she likes but I realized we're out of sugar. And I procrastinated on starting it so I don't have time to go to the store."

Malik had to laugh. "I'll just bring the bag over to you," he said.

"You're the best," Altair said gratefully.

Malik dug through his cabinets for a while until he located the half-full bag of sugar. He didn't do much baking. He turned it over just in case there was an expiration date, and found he still had two months. So he left his apartment and went over to Altair and Maria's.

Their door was open with only the screen door between him and the inside, and he heard Altair call for him to come on in before he could knock or ring the doorbell. Being in another apartment from the same building as his was a little bit strange. The layouts were similar, but there were enough differences, along with the completely different decor, that the whole thing felt off. Still, it wasn't hard for him to get to the kitchen.

"Thank you so much," Altair said as he took the bag. "I don't know how we managed to be completely out of sugar without either of us noticing."

The kitchen was a little bit of a mess. Altair had three different mixing bowls out. It looked like he was only using two of them, but the third was still dirty. There were also dirty dishes piled in the sink and on the counter next to it, because no one in the building was lucky enough to have a dishwasher, and the rest of the counter was covered in cake ingredients. Malik looked at it all and mentally cataloged what could be done to make a little bit more space.

"Where's Maria been?" he asked.

"Some networking conference or something in Raleigh," Altair said. "I don't know, that was part of it anyway. It's a thing for work. She's been gone since Saturday."

"Have you washed dishes since then?" Malik asked.

"Yes," Altair said, sounding the slightest bit offended. "I did them two days ago."

"Mhm," Malik said. He stepped up to the sink and started reorganizing, taking things out of the sink and filling it with warm water.

"You don't have to do that," Altair said. "I was going to do them while this was in the oven."

"It'll go faster this way," Malik said. "Focus on your cake."

He did, and they worked diligently at their separate tasks. Malik listened with amusement as Altair muttered comments about the cake and the recipe under his breath. Eventually he finished, poured the batter into the pan, and put it in the oven. Then he helped Malik finish the dishes.

"So, what's so special about this cake in particular?" Malik asked.

"It's from her grandmother's recipe book," Altair said. "Apparently she used to eat it a lot as a kid? We've made it together a few times, but this is my first time doing it alone. So hopefully it doesn't suck."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it either way," Malik said.

Altair snickered. "Yeah, I guess," he said. "Still, personally, I'd rather eat cake that didn't suck."

Just as they finished the dishes, Altair's phone rang. He grinned widely when he looked at the caller ID. "Hey," he said, then paused for a long moment as Maria spoke. "Okay, great. I'll see you soon." Another pause. "Love you."

He hung up a moment later. "She'll be home in about an hour," he said. "That should probably be enough time for the cake to finish."

"Hopefully," Malik agreed. "I should probably go, then."

Altair looked surprised for a moment. "You could stay," he said. "She'll be happy to see you."

So he stayed. While they waited for the cake to finish baking, they watched bad reality tv shows and made fun of them. Once the timer went off, and Altair was sure it was done, they took the pan out and left it on the corner to cool. It only required powdered sugar as a topping, which Altair did have, so they were home free.

Which was convenient, because Maria chose then to arrive.

As soon as they heard footsteps coming toward the apartment, Altair was at the door, and Maria had barely walked through it before she was swept up in a tight hug. Malik looked away to give them some privacy, and turned instead to the job of sprinkling the powdered sugar all over the cake. There wasn't anything he could do about hearing their conversation, though.

"Welcome home," Altair said.

"Thank you," Maria answered, and Malik could hear the smile in her voice. "It smells amazing in here."

"Hopefully it also tastes amazing, but I can't make any promises," Altair said. "Malik is here."

"Really?" Maria asked. She appeared in the kitchen a moment later.

"Hi," Malik greeted.

"Hey," Maria returned, and pulled him into a hug. He wasn't going to say it wasn't nice, but he also wasn't really sure what to do. Thankfully, she didn't hold him long. She looked around at the kitchen. "It looks like someone has been busy. This place is cleaner now than it was when I left."

Malik wondered what it looked like when she'd left. "All we did was wash the dishes," Altair said. "Also, Malik heroically let me use his sugar."

"Heroically?" Malik chuckled.

Maria grinned at the two of them, and at the cake sitting there on the counter. It did smell good. "You didn't have to do this, sweetheart," she said.

"It still might taste awful," Altair reminded.

The three of them sat down in the dining room to share cake, which didn't suck, and Maria told them all about her trip. Then they migrated to the couch to watch the second half of a movie that was playing on TV in easy silence. By the time Malik made it home that night it was late, and Altair and Maria had casually touched him at least half a dozen times. More than anything else, the thought just made him smile.

 

The next morning, Malik met Altair and Maria in the parking area as they were all about to head to work.

"Good morning, Malik," Maria greeted, and Altair waved.

"Morning," Malik smiled.

Maria hesitated, then looked back at Altair, who grinned. She turned back to Malik. "I have a question for you," she said.

"Okay," Malik said.

"Would you go out with us?" she asked.

He looked at both of them. They were watching him expectantly, with similar hopeful smiles on their faces. "Like, indefinitely?" he asked.

"That was the idea," Altair said.

Malik laughed. "Alright," he said. And right then, their smiles were golden.

**Author's Note:**

> Someday Malik will learn that the reason Maria was the one to ask him out was because she lost a game of Uno.


End file.
